Systems and methods for digital content provision

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can receive a user selection of an audio content item. Highlighted portion information associated with the audio content item is received. The highlighted portion information identifies one or more highlighted portions in the audio content item. A user interface is provided based on the highlighted portion information. The user interface comprises one or more highlight indicators. Each highlight indicator is associated with a respective highlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions. Each highlight indicator is selectable by a user to select the associated highlighted portion.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present technology relates to the field of digital contentplatforms. More particularly, the present technology relates to userinterfaces and techniques for sharing digital audio content.

BACKGROUND

Today, people often utilize computing devices (or systems) for a widevariety of purposes. Users can use their computing devices to, forexample, interact with one another, access content, share content, andcreate content. In some cases, content items can include postings frommembers of a social networking system. Content items may include mediacontent items, such as videos. Content items may be published to thesocial networking system or any other content platform for consumptionby others.

SUMMARY

Various embodiments of the present technology can include systems,methods, and non-transitory computer readable media configured toreceive a user selection of an audio content item. Highlighted portioninformation associated with the audio content item is received. Thehighlighted portion information identifies one or more highlightedportions in the audio content item. A user interface is provided basedon the highlighted portion information. The user interface comprises oneor more highlight indicators. Each highlight indicator is associatedwith a respective highlighted portion of the one or more highlightedportions. Each highlight indicator is selectable by a user to select theassociated highlighted portion.

In an embodiment, the highlighted portion information identifies, foreach highlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions, astart time for the highlighted portion.

In an embodiment, a selection of a first highlight indicator of the oneor more highlight indicators is received. The first highlight indicatoris associated with a first highlighted portion of the one or morehighlighted portions, and the first highlighted portion is associatedwith a first start time.

In an embodiment, in response to receiving the selection of the firsthighlight indicator, a selected start time is set to the first starttime.

In an embodiment, a preview of a selected portion of the audio contentitem is generated based on the first start time.

In an embodiment, the generating the preview of the selected portion ofthe audio content item based on the first start time further comprisesgenerating the preview of the selected portion of the audio content itembased on the first start time and a clip length.

In an embodiment, the clip length is a pre-determined clip length.

In an embodiment, the clip length is determined based on an underlyingmedia content item over which the selected portion of the audio contentitem is to be overlaid.

In an embodiment, the preview comprises playing the selected portion ofthe audio content item with the underlying media content item.

In an embodiment, the user interface further comprises a scrubber fornavigating to various time positions within the audio content item.

It should be appreciated that many other features, applications,embodiments, and/or variations of the disclosed technology will beapparent from the accompanying drawings and from the following detaileddescription. Additional and/or alternative implementations of thestructures, systems, non-transitory computer readable media, and methodsdescribed herein can be employed without departing from the principlesof the disclosed technology.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system including a content providermodule, according to an embodiment of the present technology.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example audio content sharing module, according toan embodiment of the present technology.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example user interface, according to an embodimentof the present technology.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example user interface, according to an embodimentof the present technology.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method, according to an embodiment of thepresent technology.

FIG. 6 illustrates a network diagram of an example system including anexample social networking system that can be utilized in variousscenarios, according to an embodiment of the present technology.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a computer system or computing devicethat can be utilized in various scenarios, according to an embodiment ofthe present technology.

The figures depict various embodiments of the disclosed technology forpurposes of illustration only, wherein the figures use like referencenumerals to identify like elements. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated in the figures can be employedwithout departing from the principles of the disclosed technologydescribed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Approaches for Sharing Digital Audio Content

People often utilize computing devices (or systems) for a wide varietyof purposes. Users can use their computing devices to, for example,interact with one another, access content, share content, and createcontent. In some cases, content items can include postings from membersof a social networking system. Content items may include media contentitems, such as images, videos, or audio content. Content items may bepublished to the social networking system or any other content platformfor consumption by others.

Content platforms, such as social networking systems, may provide userswith user interfaces for creating and sharing content. For example, asocial networking system may provide a computing application withvarious user interfaces that users can use to capture, edit, and sharephotos or videos. In many instances, such user interfaces may allowusers to modify visual aspects of their content. However, users may alsowish to add, modify, and/or share audio content as well. Conventionaluser interfaces often lack intuitive or user-friendly tools for editingand sharing audio content on a content platform. Many such tools, whenprovided, are limited in the portions of audio content that a user canshare, or require the user to listen through large portions of an audiocontent item in order to identify the portion that the user wishes toshare. Conventional approaches may not be effective in addressing theseand other problems arising in computer technology.

An improved approach rooted in computer technology overcomes theforegoing and other disadvantages associated with conventionalapproaches specifically arising in the realm of computer technology. Ingeneral, users may be provided with a user interface that allows them toquickly and easily identify portions of audio content to be shared withother users on a content platform, such as a social networking system.For example, in certain embodiments, users may be provided with a userinterface that allows them to select a portion of a song. The portion ofthe song can be added to other visual content that the user wishes toshare (e.g., a photo or a video), or the portion of the song can beshared on its own as stand-alone audio content. In an embodiment, for aparticular audio content item, one or more highlighted portions can beidentified. Each highlighted portion may correspond to a portion of theaudio content item that has been identified as having a higherlikelihood of being of interest to users and/or a higher likelihood ofbeing shared by users. When a user indicates that he or she would liketo share a portion of the audio content item, the user may be presentedwith a user interface. The user interface can present the user with theone or more highlighted portions that have been identified for the audiocontent item. The user can select the one or more highlighted portionsand preview them. If the user would like to use one of thepre-identified highlighted portions, the user can select one of thehighlighted portions to share on the content platform. However, in casea user would like to share a different portion of the audio contentitem, the user interface can also include a scrubber that a user canutilize to navigate through the audio content item and select theportion of the audio content item that he or she would like to share.The highlighted portions allow a user to quickly and easily select andshare portions of an audio content item that have been pre-identified,while the scrubber still provides the user with full control over whichportion of the audio content item the user would like to share. Moredetails relating to the disclosed technology are provided below.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 100 including a content providermodule 102, according to an embodiment of the present technology. Thecontent provider module 102 can be configured to provide users withaccess to content posted to a digital content platform, such as a socialnetworking system. As shown in the example of FIG. 1, the contentprovider module 102 can include a content module 104, a follow module106, an interaction module 108, a story module 110, and an audio contentsharing module 112. In some instances, the example system 100 caninclude at least one data store 114. The components (e.g., modules,elements, etc.) shown in this figure and all figures herein areexemplary only, and other implementations may include additional, fewer,integrated, or different components. Some components may not be shown soas not to obscure relevant details. In various embodiments, one or moreof the functionalities described in connection with the content providermodule 102 can be implemented in any suitable combinations.

In some embodiments, the content provider module 102 can be implemented,in part or in whole, as software, hardware, or any combination thereof.In general, a module as discussed herein can be associated withsoftware, hardware, or any combination thereof. In some implementations,one or more functions, tasks, and/or operations of modules can becarried out or performed by software routines, software processes,hardware, and/or any combination thereof. In some cases, the contentprovider module 102 can be, in part or in whole, implemented as softwarerunning on one or more computing devices or systems, such as on a serversystem or a client computing device. In some instances, the contentprovider module 102 can be, in part or in whole, implemented within orconfigured to operate in conjunction with or be integrated with a socialnetworking system (or service), such as a social networking system 630of FIG. 6. Likewise, in some instances, the content provider module 102can be, in part or in whole, implemented within or configured to operatein conjunction with or be integrated with a client computing device,such as the user device 610 of FIG. 6. For example, the content providermodule 102 can be implemented as or within a dedicated application(e.g., app), a program, or an applet running on a user computing deviceor client computing system. The application incorporating orimplementing instructions for performing functionality of the contentprovider module 102 can be created by a developer. The application canbe provided to or maintained in a repository. In some cases, theapplication can be uploaded or otherwise transmitted over a network(e.g., Internet) to the repository. For example, a computing system(e.g., server) associated with or under control of the developer of theapplication can provide or transmit the application to the repository.The repository can include, for example, an “app” store in which theapplication can be maintained for access or download by a user. Inresponse to a command by the user to download the application, theapplication can be provided or otherwise transmitted over a network fromthe repository to a computing device associated with the user. Forexample, a computing system (e.g., server) associated with or undercontrol of an administrator of the repository can cause or permit theapplication to be transmitted to the computing device of the user sothat the user can install and run the application. The developer of theapplication and the administrator of the repository can be differententities in some cases, but can be the same entity in other cases. Itshould be understood that many variations are possible.

The content provider module 102 can be configured to communicate and/oroperate with the at least one data store 114, as shown in the examplesystem 100. The data store 114 can be configured to store and maintainvarious types of data. In some implementations, the data store 114 canstore information associated with the social networking system (e.g.,the social networking system 630 of FIG. 6). The information associatedwith the social networking system can include data about users, useridentifiers, social connections, social interactions, profileinformation, demographic information, locations, geo-fenced areas, maps,places, events, pages, groups, posts, communications, content, feeds,account settings, privacy settings, a social graph, and various othertypes of data. In some embodiments, the data store 114 can storeinformation that is utilized by the content provider module 102. Forexample, the data store 114 can store one or more audio content items,highlighted portion information for the one or more audio content items,and the like. It is contemplated that there can be many variations orother possibilities.

The content module 104 can be configured to provide users with access tocontent that is available through a digital content platform, such as asocial networking system. In some instances, this content can includecontent items posted in content feeds accessible through the socialnetworking system, i.e., content posts. For example, the content module104 can provide a first user with access to content posts through aninterface that is provided by a software application (e.g., a socialnetworking application) running on a computing device of the first user.The first user can also interact with the interface to post contentposts to the social networking system. Such content posts may includetext, images, audio, and videos, to name some examples. For example, thefirst user can submit a content post to be published through the socialnetworking system. In some embodiments, the content post can include, orreference, one or more media content items, such as images, video,audio, and/or text.

In various embodiments, other users of the social networking system canaccess content posts posted by the first user. In one example, the otherusers can access the content posts by searching for the first user byuser name through an interface provided by a software application (e.g.,a social networking application, browser, etc.) running on theirrespective computing devices. In some instances, some users may want tosee content posts posted by the first user in their respective contentfeed. To cause content posts posted by the first user to be included intheir respective content feed, a user can select an option through theinterface to subscribe to, or “follow”, the first user. The followmodule 106 can process the user's request by identifying the user as afollower of (or “friend” of) the first user in the social networkingsystem. As a result, some or all content posts that are posted by thefirst user can automatically be included in the respective content feedof the user. If the user decides that they no longer want to see contentfrom the first user in their respective content feed, the user canselect an option through the interface to unsubscribe from, or“unfollow”, the first user. As a result, the follow module 106 canremove the association between the user and the first user so thatcontent posts posted by the first user are no longer included in thecontent feed of the user.

In some instances, users may want to interact with content posts postedto a social networking system. For example, a user may want to endorse,or “like”, a content post. In this example, the user can select anoption provided in the interface to like the desired content post. Theinteraction module 108 can determine when a user likes a given contentpost and can store information describing this relationship. Theinteraction module 108 can also determine when other forms of userinteraction are performed and can store information describing theinteraction (e.g., information describing the type of interaction, theidentity of the user, the identity of the user that posted the contentpost, and the content post, to name some examples). For example, theuser may want to post a comment in response to a content post. In thisexample, the user can select an option provided in the interface toenter and post the comment for the desired content post. The interactionmodule 108 can determine when a user posts a comment in response to agiven content post and can store information describing thisrelationship. Other forms of user interaction can include emoji-basedreactions to a content post (e.g., selecting an option that correspondsto a particular reaction emoji, e.g., happy, sad, angry, etc.),re-sharing a content post, and transmitting a message to a userpertaining to a particular content post, for example.

In some embodiments, the story module 110 can provide an option thatallows users to post their content as stories. In such embodiments, eachuser has a corresponding story collection in which the user can postcontent. When a user's story collection is accessed by another user, thestory module 110 can provide content posted in the story collection tothe other user for viewing. In certain embodiments, each user can have astory feed in which they can view stories posted by other users to theirrespective story collections. As such, a user's story feed can includethe story collections of one or more users (e.g., one or more users thatthe user follows). In some embodiments, content posted in a user's storycollection may be accessible by any user of the social networkingsystem. In some embodiments, content posted in a user's story collectionmay only be accessible to followers of the user. In some embodiments,user stories posted to a user's story collection expire after apre-defined time interval (e.g., every 24 hours). In such embodiments,content posted as a story in a story collection is treated as ephemeralcontent that is made inaccessible once the pre-defined time interval haselapsed. In contrast, content posted in certain other content feeds,such as a user (or follower) primary content feed, can be treated asnon-ephemeral content that remains accessible for a longer and/or anindefinite period of time.

The audio content sharing module 112 can be configured to receive a userselection of an audio content item. The user selection may indicate thatthe user wishes to share a portion of the audio content item. The audiocontent sharing module 112 can provide one or more user interfaces thatthe user can utilize to select a portion of the audio content item forsharing. The one or more user interfaces can identify one or morepre-identified highlighted portions in the audio content item. The oneor more pre-identified highlighted portions may be selectable by theuser so that the user can quickly and easily select one of thepre-identified highlighted portions. The user interface can also includea scrubber that allows the user to navigate through the audio contentitem to select a portion of the audio content item to share. Once theuser selects a portion of the audio content item to share, the audiocontent sharing module 112 can publish the selected portion of the audiocontent item (e.g., to a content platform, such as a social networkingsystem). More details regarding the audio content sharing module 112will be provided below with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example audio content sharing module 202,according to an embodiment of the present technology. In someembodiments, the audio content sharing module 112 of FIG. 1 can beimplemented as the audio content sharing module 202. As shown in theexample of FIG. 2, the audio content sharing module 202 can include ahighlighted portion identification module 204, an audio contentselection module 206, and a content publication module 208.

The highlighted portion identification module 204 can be configured toidentify one or more highlighted portions in each audio content item ofa set of audio content items. Highlighted portions in an audio contentitem may represent portions of the audio content item that have beenidentified as having a higher likelihood of being shared by users thanother portions of the audio content item. For example, a song may havethe chorus identified as a highlighted portion and/or a popular line inthe song identified as a highlighted portion. In certain embodiments,each highlighted portion in an audio content item may be identifiedand/or represented by a start time indicating the time position in theaudio content item at which the highlighted portion begins. For example,if the chorus of a song begins at the one minute twenty second mark ofthe song, highlighted portion information for the song may indicate thata first highlighted portion begins at one minute twenty seconds. If thesong also includes a popular line that begins at the two minute thirtysecond mark of the song, highlighted portion information for the songmay indicate that a second highlighted portion begins at two minutesthirty seconds.

Highlighted portions can be identified by various techniques. In anembodiment, highlighted portions may be identified by one or moreentities that own an audio content item (e.g., by an artist and/or arecording label that owns a song). In an embodiment, highlightedportions may be identified by a content platform (e.g., by a socialnetworking system). In an embodiment, highlighted portions may beidentified based on historical user interaction information. Forexample, for a particular song, historical user interaction informationmay indicate which portions of the song have been shared by users in thepast, and how many times and/or how frequently those portions have beenshared. Portions of the song that have been shared most frequently(e.g., the top one, top two, top three, etc.), or portions of the songthat satisfy a sharing threshold (e.g., have been shared more than athreshold number of times) may be identified as highlighted portions.The highlighted portion identification module 204 may maintainhighlighted portion information for one or more audio content items thatidentifies the highlighted portions (e.g., start positions for eachhighlighted portion) in each audio content item.

The audio content selection module 206 can be configured to receive auser selection of an audio content item. The user may provide aselection of an audio content item via a user interface. FIG. 3illustrates an example user interface 302 that a user can use to selectan audio content item. The audio content selection module 206 can beconfigured to provide a user with a user interface that incorporatessome or all of the features depicted in the example user interface 302of FIG. 3. The example user interface 302 includes a search bar 304 thata user can use to search for a particular audio content item. The userinterface 302 also includes various categories 306 of music. Thecategories 306 are merely examples of various classifications of audiocontent, and many variations are possible. The user can select aparticular category to view audio content items that fall within theselected category. The user interface 302 also includes a list ofpopular audio content items 308 (in this case, a list of popular songs).Popular songs can be identified in various ways, such as based on anextent to which they have been shared on a social networking system(e.g., satisfaction of a threshold level of sharing) or their appearanceon a predetermined list of popular songs that is generated by an entity.Through the user interface 302, the user can select a particular audiocontent item that he or she would like to share.

Once a user has selected a particular audio content item that the userwould like to share a portion of, the audio content selection module 206can provide a user interface that allows the user to identify a specificportion of the audio content item to share. FIG. 4 illustrates anexample user interface 402 that a user can use to select a specificportion of an audio content item. The audio content selection module 206can be configured to provide a user with a user interface thatincorporates some or all of the features depicted in the example userinterface 402.

In the example user interface 402, a user has selected a song entitled“Song A” by the musical group “Band B.” The user interface 402 allowsthe user to select a portion of the song to share (e.g., on a socialnetworking system). The user interface 402 includes a timeline 404 whichrepresents the entirety of the audio content item, with a left-most endof the timeline 404 representing the start of the audio content item,and the right-most end of the timeline 404 representing the end of theaudio content item. A playhead 406 indicates a current position withinthe audio content item. As the audio content item is played, or as theuser selects different portions of the audio content item (as describedbelow), the playhead 406 moves along the timeline 404.

The user interface 402 also identifies two highlighted portions in theaudio content item via highlight indicators 408 a, 408 b. The positionof each highlighted portion along the timeline 404 is indicated byhighlighted portion position indicators 410 a, 410 b. As discussedabove, each highlighted portion in an audio content item may berepresented by a start time associated with the highlighted portion. Fora particular audio content item, the audio content selection module 206can receive highlighted portion information identifying one or morehighlighted portions in the audio content item and their respectivestart times, and can determine the appropriate position for eachhighlight indicator 408 a, 408 b and highlighted portion positionindicator 410 a, 410 b along the timeline 404 based on the length of theaudio content item and the start time of the highlighted portion. Forexample, if a song is exactly three-minutes long, and a firsthighlighted portion begins at the one-minute mark, the audio contentselection module 206 can place a highlight indicator and a highlightedportion position indicator ⅓ of the way from the left-most end of thetimeline to the right-most end of the timeline.

The highlight indicators 408 a, 408 b are selectable by a user. Forexample, the user can select the highlight indicators 408 a, 408 b by anappropriate user gesture (e.g., a tap to portions of a touchscreenthrough which the highlight indicators 408 a, 408 b are presented)applied to the highlight indicators 408 a, 408 b. If a user selects thehighlight indicator 408 a associated with a first highlighted portion, aselected start time is automatically set to the start time associatedwith the first highlighted portion, and the playhead 406 automaticallymoves to the start time associated with the first highlighted portion asindicated by the highlighted portion position indicator 410 a. If theuser selects the highlight indicator 408 b associated with a secondhighlighted portion, the selected start time is automatically set to thestart time associated with the second highlighted portion, and theplayhead 406 automatically moves to the start time associated with thesecond highlighted portion as indicated by the highlighted portionposition indicator 410 b. Alternatively, if the user would like toselect a portion of the audio content item (e.g., a portion that is notidentified as a highlighted portion), the user can utilize a scrubber412 to “scrub” left or right. As the user scrubs left or right, theplayhead 406 moves along the timeline 404 and, by manipulating thescrubber 412, the user can select any time position within the audiocontent item.

The audio content selection module 206 can be configured to provide apreview (audio preview) of the selected portion of an audio content item(e.g., by playing back the selected portion of the audio content item).A window 418 presents a visual depiction of the selected portion of theaudio content item. In certain embodiments, the selected portion of anaudio content item and/or the preview may be defined or referenced by aselected start time and a clip length. As discussed above, a user canidentify a selected start time (i.e., the user can select a start timefor the selected portion) by either selecting a highlighted portion(e.g., by selecting a highlight indicator 408 a, 408 b) or by using thescrubber 412 to move to different positions within the audio contentitem. In certain embodiments, the clip length may be a fixed length(e.g., 15 seconds), such that the preview presented to the user is aclip of a pre-determined fixed length that begins at the selected starttime. In certain embodiments, the clip length may be defined based on anunderlying media content item. For example, a user may wish to share avideo. The user can select the video, and then can utilize the userinterfaces 302, 402 to select a portion of an audio content item to addand/or overlay onto the video. In such scenarios, the clip length may bedefined based on the length of the video. For example, if the video isan 8-second video, the clip length may be 8 seconds, or if the video isa 12-second video, the clip length may be 12 seconds. In certainembodiments, a background portion 414 of the user interface 402 maypresent the underlying media content item along with the audio previewof the selected portion of the audio content item so that the user canpreview the underlying media content item with the selected portion ofthe audio content item. In various embodiments, the underlying mediacontent item may include one or more images, one or more videos, or anyother content items that can be shared to a content platform.

In certain embodiments, the preview can continuously loop the selectedportion of the audio content item until the user either selects adifferent portion of the audio content item (e.g., by selecting adifferent highlighted portion and/or using the scrubber 412) or the userexits the user interface (e.g., by canceling the operation, or selectinga “Next” button 416 to proceed with publishing and/or sharing theselected portion of the audio content item). In certain embodiments, theaudio content selection module 206 downloads only a portion of an audiocontent item that is needed for a preview. For example, if a previewincludes a 15 second clip that begins from the 40-second position of anaudio content item, the audio content selection module 206 can download(i.e., provide to a computing device of the user) a portion of the audiocontent item from the 40-second position to the 55-second position ofthe audio content item. When a user changes the preview by changing theselected start time for the selected portion of the content item (e.g.,using the scrubber 412 and/or the highlight indicators 408 a, 408 b),the audio content selection module 206 can then download the portion ofthe audio content item needed for the new preview. In this way, userscan be presented with previews more quickly than if they had to wait forthe entire audio content item to download. Using the disclosedtechnology, the highlight indicators 408 a, 408 b, allow a user toquickly select a pre-identified portion of an audio content item with asingle user interaction (e.g., a single tap), while the scrubber 412provides users with greater control and freedom in selecting variousportions of audio content items.

Returning to FIG. 2, the content publication module 208 can beconfigured to publish and/or share a portion of an audio content itemselected by a user to a content platform, such as a social networkingsystem. As discussed above, the selected portion of the audio contentitem may be overlaid on or otherwise combined with an underlying mediacontent item, and published as part of and/or in conjunction with theunderlying media content items. In other instances, the selected portionof the audio content item may be published and/or shared as astand-alone audio content item. In various embodiments, the audiocontent item may be shared as and/or as part of an ephemeral contentitem (e.g., to be published in one or more ephemeral content feeds), oras a non-ephemeral content item (e.g., to be published in one or morenon-ephemeral content feeds).

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method 500, according to an embodiment ofthe present technology. It should be appreciated that there can beadditional, fewer, or alternative steps performed in similar oralternative orders, or in parallel, within the scope of the variousembodiments discussed herein unless otherwise stated.

At block 502, the example method 500 can receive a user selection of anaudio content item. At block 504, the example method 500 can receivehighlighted portion information associated with the audio content item,the highlighted portion information identifying one or more highlightedportions in the audio content item. At block 506, the example method 500can provide a user interface based on the highlighted portioninformation, wherein the user interface comprises one or more highlightindicators, each highlight indicator is associated with a respectivehighlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions, and eachhighlight indicator is selectable by a user to select the associatedhighlighted portion.

It is contemplated that there can be many other uses, applications,and/or variations associated with the various embodiments of the presenttechnology. For example, in some cases, user can choose whether or notto opt-in to utilize the disclosed technology. The disclosed technologycan also ensure that various privacy settings and preferences aremaintained and can prevent private information from being divulged. Inanother example, various embodiments of the present technology canlearn, improve, and/or be refined over time.

Social Networking System—Example Implementation

FIG. 6 illustrates a network diagram of an example system 600 that canbe utilized in various scenarios, according to an embodiment of thepresent technology. The system 600 includes one or more user devices610, one or more external systems 620, a social networking system (orservice) 630, and a network 650. In an embodiment, the social networkingservice, provider, and/or system discussed in connection with theembodiments described above may be implemented as the social networkingsystem 630. For purposes of illustration, the embodiment of the system600, shown by FIG. 6, includes a single external system 620 and a singleuser device 610. However, in other embodiments, the system 600 mayinclude more user devices 610 and/or more external systems 620. Incertain embodiments, the social networking system 630 is operated by asocial network provider, whereas the external systems 620 are separatefrom the social networking system 630 in that they may be operated bydifferent entities. In various embodiments, however, the socialnetworking system 630 and the external systems 620 operate inconjunction to provide social networking services to users (or members)of the social networking system 630. In this sense, the socialnetworking system 630 provides a platform or backbone, which othersystems, such as external systems 620, may use to provide socialnetworking services and functionalities to users across the Internet.

The user device 610 comprises one or more computing devices that canreceive input from a user and transmit and receive data via the network650. In one embodiment, the user device 610 is a conventional computersystem executing, for example, a Microsoft Windows compatible operatingsystem (OS), Apple OS X, and/or a Linux distribution. In anotherembodiment, the user device 610 can be a device having computerfunctionality, such as a smart-phone, a tablet, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, etc. The user device 610 isconfigured to communicate via the network 650. The user device 610 canexecute an application, for example, a browser application that allows auser of the user device 610 to interact with the social networkingsystem 630. In another embodiment, the user device 610 interacts withthe social networking system 630 through an application programminginterface (API) provided by the native operating system of the userdevice 610, such as iOS and ANDROID. The user device 610 is configuredto communicate with the external system 620 and the social networkingsystem 630 via the network 650, which may comprise any combination oflocal area and/or wide area networks, using wired and/or wirelesscommunication systems.

In one embodiment, the network 650 uses standard communicationstechnologies and protocols. Thus, the network 650 can include linksusing technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwide interoperabilityfor microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, CDMA, GSM, LTE, digital subscriberline (DSL), etc. Similarly, the networking protocols used on the network650 can include multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmissioncontrol protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), User Datagram Protocol(UDP), hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), simple mail transferprotocol (SMTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), and the like. The dataexchanged over the network 650 can be represented using technologiesand/or formats including hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensiblemarkup language (XML). In addition, all or some links can be encryptedusing conventional encryption technologies such as secure sockets layer(SSL), transport layer security (TLS), and Internet Protocol security(IPsec).

In one embodiment, the user device 610 may display content from theexternal system 620 and/or from the social networking system 630 byprocessing a markup language document 614 received from the externalsystem 620 and from the social networking system 630 using a browserapplication 612. The markup language document 614 identifies content andone or more instructions describing formatting or presentation of thecontent. By executing the instructions included in the markup languagedocument 614, the browser application 612 displays the identifiedcontent using the format or presentation described by the markuplanguage document 614. For example, the markup language document 614includes instructions for generating and displaying a web page havingmultiple frames that include text and/or image data retrieved from theexternal system 620 and the social networking system 630. In variousembodiments, the markup language document 614 comprises a data fileincluding extensible markup language (XML) data, extensible hypertextmarkup language (XHTML) data, or other markup language data.Additionally, the markup language document 614 may include JavaScriptObject Notation (JSON) data, JSON with padding (JSONP), and JavaScriptdata to facilitate data-interchange between the external system 620 andthe user device 610. The browser application 612 on the user device 610may use a JavaScript compiler to decode the markup language document614.

The markup language document 614 may also include, or link to,applications or application frameworks such as FLASH™ or Unity™applications, the SilverLight™ application framework, etc.

In one embodiment, the user device 610 also includes one or more cookies616 including data indicating whether a user of the user device 610 islogged into the social networking system 630, which may enablemodification of the data communicated from the social networking system630 to the user device 610.

The external system 620 includes one or more web servers that includeone or more web pages 622 a, 622 b, which are communicated to the userdevice 610 using the network 650. The external system 620 is separatefrom the social networking system 630. For example, the external system620 is associated with a first domain, while the social networkingsystem 630 is associated with a separate social networking domain. Webpages 622 a, 622 b, included in the external system 620, comprise markuplanguage documents 614 identifying content and including instructionsspecifying formatting or presentation of the identified content.

The social networking system 630 includes one or more computing devicesfor a social network, including a plurality of users, and providingusers of the social network with the ability to communicate and interactwith other users of the social network. In some instances, the socialnetwork can be represented by a graph, i.e., a data structure includingedges and nodes. Other data structures can also be used to represent thesocial network, including but not limited to databases, objects,classes, meta elements, files, or any other data structure. The socialnetworking system 630 may be administered, managed, or controlled by anoperator. The operator of the social networking system 630 may be ahuman being, an automated application, or a series of applications formanaging content, regulating policies, and collecting usage metricswithin the social networking system 630. Any type of operator may beused.

Users may join the social networking system 630 and then add connectionsto any number of other users of the social networking system 630 to whomthey desire to be connected. As used herein, the term “friend” refers toany other user of the social networking system 630 to whom a user hasformed a connection, association, or relationship via the socialnetworking system 630. For example, in an embodiment, if users in thesocial networking system 630 are represented as nodes in the socialgraph, the term “friend” can refer to an edge formed between anddirectly connecting two user nodes.

Connections may be added explicitly by a user or may be automaticallycreated by the social networking system 630 based on commoncharacteristics of the users (e.g., users who are alumni of the sameeducational institution). For example, a first user specifically selectsa particular other user to be a friend. Connections in the socialnetworking system 630 are usually in both directions, but need not be,so the terms “user” and “friend” depend on the frame of reference.Connections between users of the social networking system 630 areusually bilateral (“two-way”), or “mutual,” but connections may also beunilateral, or “one-way.” For example, if Bob and Joe are both users ofthe social networking system 630 and connected to each other, Bob andJoe are each other's connections. If, on the other hand, Bob wishes toconnect to Joe to view data communicated to the social networking system630 by Joe, but Joe does not wish to form a mutual connection, aunilateral connection may be established. The connection between usersmay be a direct connection; however, some embodiments of the socialnetworking system 630 allow the connection to be indirect via one ormore levels of connections or degrees of separation.

In addition to establishing and maintaining connections between usersand allowing interactions between users, the social networking system630 provides users with the ability to take actions on various types ofitems supported by the social networking system 630. These items mayinclude groups or networks (i.e., social networks of people, entities,and concepts) to which users of the social networking system 630 maybelong, events or calendar entries in which a user might be interested,computer-based applications that a user may use via the socialnetworking system 630, transactions that allow users to buy or sellitems via services provided by or through the social networking system630, and interactions with advertisements that a user may perform on oroff the social networking system 630. These are just a few examples ofthe items upon which a user may act on the social networking system 630,and many others are possible. A user may interact with anything that iscapable of being represented in the social networking system 630 or inthe external system 620, separate from the social networking system 630,or coupled to the social networking system 630 via the network 650.

The social networking system 630 is also capable of linking a variety ofentities. For example, the social networking system 630 enables users tointeract with each other as well as external systems 620 or otherentities through an API, a web service, or other communication channels.The social networking system 630 generates and maintains the “socialgraph” comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by a plurality ofedges. Each node in the social graph may represent an entity that canact on another node and/or that can be acted on by another node. Thesocial graph may include various types of nodes. Examples of types ofnodes include users, non-person entities, content items, web pages,groups, activities, messages, concepts, and any other things that can berepresented by an object in the social networking system 630. An edgebetween two nodes in the social graph may represent a particular kind ofconnection, or association, between the two nodes, which may result fromnode relationships or from an action that was performed by one of thenodes on the other node. In some cases, the edges between nodes can beweighted. The weight of an edge can represent an attribute associatedwith the edge, such as a strength of the connection or associationbetween nodes. Different types of edges can be provided with differentweights. For example, an edge created when one user “likes” another usermay be given one weight, while an edge created when a user befriendsanother user may be given a different weight.

As an example, when a first user identifies a second user as a friend,an edge in the social graph is generated connecting a node representingthe first user and a second node representing the second user. Asvarious nodes relate or interact with each other, the social networkingsystem 630 modifies edges connecting the various nodes to reflect therelationships and interactions.

The social networking system 630 also includes user-generated content,which enhances a user's interactions with the social networking system630. User-generated content may include anything a user can add, upload,send, or “post” to the social networking system 630. For example, a usercommunicates posts to the social networking system 630 from a userdevice 610. Posts may include data such as status updates or othertextual data, location information, images such as photos, videos,links, music or other similar data and/or media. Content may also beadded to the social networking system 630 by a third party. Content“items” are represented as objects in the social networking system 630.In this way, users of the social networking system 630 are encouraged tocommunicate with each other by posting text and content items of varioustypes of media through various communication channels. Suchcommunication increases the interaction of users with each other andincreases the frequency with which users interact with the socialnetworking system 630.

The social networking system 630 includes a web server 632, an APIrequest server 634, a user profile store 636, a connection store 638, anaction logger 640, an activity log 642, and an authorization server 644.In an embodiment of the invention, the social networking system 630 mayinclude additional, fewer, or different components for variousapplications. Other components, such as network interfaces, securitymechanisms, load balancers, failover servers, management and networkoperations consoles, and the like are not shown so as to not obscure thedetails of the system.

The user profile store 636 maintains information about user accounts,including biographic, demographic, and other types of descriptiveinformation, such as work experience, educational history, hobbies orpreferences, location, and the like that has been declared by users orinferred by the social networking system 630. This information is storedin the user profile store 636 such that each user is uniquelyidentified. The social networking system 630 also stores data describingone or more connections between different users in the connection store638. The connection information may indicate users who have similar orcommon work experience, group memberships, hobbies, or educationalhistory. Additionally, the social networking system 630 includesuser-defined connections between different users, allowing users tospecify their relationships with other users. For example, user-definedconnections allow users to generate relationships with other users thatparallel the users' real-life relationships, such as friends,co-workers, partners, and so forth. Users may select from predefinedtypes of connections, or define their own connection types as needed.Connections with other nodes in the social networking system 630, suchas non-person entities, buckets, cluster centers, images, interests,pages, external systems, concepts, and the like are also stored in theconnection store 638.

The social networking system 630 maintains data about objects with whicha user may interact. To maintain this data, the user profile store 636and the connection store 638 store instances of the corresponding typeof objects maintained by the social networking system 630. Each objecttype has information fields that are suitable for storing informationappropriate to the type of object. For example, the user profile store636 contains data structures with fields suitable for describing auser's account and information related to a user's account. When a newobject of a particular type is created, the social networking system 630initializes a new data structure of the corresponding type, assigns aunique object identifier to it, and begins to add data to the object asneeded. This might occur, for example, when a user becomes a user of thesocial networking system 630, the social networking system 630 generatesa new instance of a user profile in the user profile store 636, assignsa unique identifier to the user account, and begins to populate thefields of the user account with information provided by the user.

The connection store 638 includes data structures suitable fordescribing a user's connections to other users, connections to externalsystems 620 or connections to other entities. The connection store 638may also associate a connection type with a user's connections, whichmay be used in conjunction with the user's privacy setting to regulateaccess to information about the user. In an embodiment of the invention,the user profile store 636 and the connection store 638 may beimplemented as a federated database.

Data stored in the connection store 638, the user profile store 636, andthe activity log 642 enables the social networking system 630 togenerate the social graph that uses nodes to identify various objectsand edges connecting nodes to identify relationships between differentobjects. For example, if a first user establishes a connection with asecond user in the social networking system 630, user accounts of thefirst user and the second user from the user profile store 636 may actas nodes in the social graph. The connection between the first user andthe second user stored by the connection store 638 is an edge betweenthe nodes associated with the first user and the second user. Continuingthis example, the second user may then send the first user a messagewithin the social networking system 630. The action of sending themessage, which may be stored, is another edge between the two nodes inthe social graph representing the first user and the second user.Additionally, the message itself may be identified and included in thesocial graph as another node connected to the nodes representing thefirst user and the second user.

In another example, a first user may tag a second user in an image thatis maintained by the social networking system 630 (or, alternatively, inan image maintained by another system outside of the social networkingsystem 630). The image may itself be represented as a node in the socialnetworking system 630. This tagging action may create edges between thefirst user and the second user as well as create an edge between each ofthe users and the image, which is also a node in the social graph. Inyet another example, if a user confirms attending an event, the user andthe event are nodes obtained from the user profile store 636, where theattendance of the event is an edge between the nodes that may beretrieved from the activity log 642. By generating and maintaining thesocial graph, the social networking system 630 includes data describingmany different types of objects and the interactions and connectionsamong those objects, providing a rich source of socially relevantinformation.

The web server 632 links the social networking system 630 to one or moreuser devices 610 and/or one or more external systems 620 via the network650. The web server 632 serves web pages, as well as other web-relatedcontent, such as Java, JavaScript, Flash, XML, and so forth. The webserver 632 may include a mail server or other messaging functionalityfor receiving and routing messages between the social networking system630 and one or more user devices 610. The messages can be instantmessages, queued messages (e.g., email), text and SMS messages, or anyother suitable messaging format.

The API request server 634 allows one or more external systems 620 anduser devices 610 to call access information from the social networkingsystem 630 by calling one or more API functions. The API request server634 may also allow external systems 620 to send information to thesocial networking system 630 by calling APIs. The external system 620,in one embodiment, sends an API request to the social networking system630 via the network 650, and the API request server 634 receives the APIrequest. The API request server 634 processes the request by calling anAPI associated with the API request to generate an appropriate response,which the API request server 634 communicates to the external system 620via the network 650. For example, responsive to an API request, the APIrequest server 634 collects data associated with a user, such as theuser's connections that have logged into the external system 620, andcommunicates the collected data to the external system 620. In anotherembodiment, the user device 610 communicates with the social networkingsystem 630 via APIs in the same manner as external systems 620.

The action logger 640 is capable of receiving communications from theweb server 632 about user actions on and/or off the social networkingsystem 630. The action logger 640 populates the activity log 642 withinformation about user actions, enabling the social networking system630 to discover various actions taken by its users within the socialnetworking system 630 and outside of the social networking system 630.Any action that a particular user takes with respect to another node onthe social networking system 630 may be associated with each user'saccount, through information maintained in the activity log 642 or in asimilar database or other data repository. Examples of actions taken bya user within the social networking system 630 that are identified andstored may include, for example, adding a connection to another user,sending a message to another user, reading a message from another user,viewing content associated with another user, attending an event postedby another user, posting an image, attempting to post an image, or otheractions interacting with another user or another object. When a usertakes an action within the social networking system 630, the action isrecorded in the activity log 642. In one embodiment, the socialnetworking system 630 maintains the activity log 642 as a database ofentries. When an action is taken within the social networking system630, an entry for the action is added to the activity log 642. Theactivity log 642 may be referred to as an action log.

Additionally, user actions may be associated with concepts and actionsthat occur within an entity outside of the social networking system 630,such as an external system 620 that is separate from the socialnetworking system 630. For example, the action logger 640 may receivedata describing a user's interaction with an external system 620 fromthe web server 632. In this example, the external system 620 reports auser's interaction according to structured actions and objects in thesocial graph.

Other examples of actions where a user interacts with an external system620 include a user expressing an interest in an external system 620 oranother entity, a user posting a comment to the social networking system630 that discusses an external system 620 or a web page 622 a within theexternal system 620, a user posting to the social networking system 630a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or other identifier associated with anexternal system 620, a user attending an event associated with anexternal system 620, or any other action by a user that is related to anexternal system 620. Thus, the activity log 642 may include actionsdescribing interactions between a user of the social networking system630 and an external system 620 that is separate from the socialnetworking system 630.

The authorization server 644 enforces one or more privacy settings ofthe users of the social networking system 630. A privacy setting of auser determines how particular information associated with a user can beshared. The privacy setting comprises the specification of particularinformation associated with a user and the specification of the entityor entities with whom the information can be shared. Examples ofentities with which information can be shared may include other users,applications, external systems 620, or any entity that can potentiallyaccess the information. The information that can be shared by a usercomprises user account information, such as profile photos, phonenumbers associated with the user, user's connections, actions taken bythe user such as adding a connection, changing user profile information,and the like.

The privacy setting specification may be provided at different levels ofgranularity. For example, the privacy setting may identify specificinformation to be shared with other users; the privacy settingidentifies a work phone number or a specific set of related information,such as, personal information including profile photo, home phonenumber, and status. Alternatively, the privacy setting may apply to allthe information associated with the user. The specification of the setof entities that can access particular information can also be specifiedat various levels of granularity. Various sets of entities with whichinformation can be shared may include, for example, all friends of theuser, all friends of friends, all applications, or all external systems620. One embodiment allows the specification of the set of entities tocomprise an enumeration of entities. For example, the user may provide alist of external systems 620 that are allowed to access certaininformation. Another embodiment allows the specification to comprise aset of entities along with exceptions that are not allowed to access theinformation. For example, a user may allow all external systems 620 toaccess the user's work information, but specify a list of externalsystems 620 that are not allowed to access the work information. Certainembodiments call the list of exceptions that are not allowed to accesscertain information a “block list”. External systems 620 belonging to ablock list specified by a user are blocked from accessing theinformation specified in the privacy setting. Various combinations ofgranularity of specification of information, and granularity ofspecification of entities, with which information is shared arepossible. For example, all personal information may be shared withfriends whereas all work information may be shared with friends offriends.

The authorization server 644 contains logic to determine if certaininformation associated with a user can be accessed by a user's friends,external systems 620, and/or other applications and entities. Theexternal system 620 may need authorization from the authorization server644 to access the user's more private and sensitive information, such asthe user's work phone number. Based on the user's privacy settings, theauthorization server 644 determines if another user, the external system620, an application, or another entity is allowed to access informationassociated with the user, including information about actions taken bythe user.

In some embodiments, the social networking system 630 can include acontent provider module 646. The content provider module 646 can, forexample, be implemented as the content provider module 102, as discussedin more detail herein. As discussed previously, it should be appreciatedthat there can be many variations or other possibilities. For example,in some embodiments, one or more functionalities of the content providermodule 646 can be implemented in the user device 610. As discussedpreviously, it should be appreciated that there can be many variationsor other possibilities.

Hardware Implementation

The foregoing processes and features can be implemented by a widevariety of machine and computer system architectures and in a widevariety of network and computing environments. FIG. 7 illustrates anexample of a computer system 700 that may be used to implement one ormore of the embodiments described herein according to an embodiment ofthe invention. The computer system 700 includes sets of instructions forcausing the computer system 700 to perform the processes and featuresdiscussed herein. The computer system 700 may be connected (e.g.,networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the computersystem 700 may operate in the capacity of a server machine or a clientmachine in a client-server network environment, or as a peer machine ina peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. In an embodiment ofthe invention, the computer system 700 may be the social networkingsystem 630, the user device 610, and the external system 620, or acomponent thereof. In an embodiment of the invention, the computersystem 700 may be one server among many that constitutes all or part ofthe social networking system 630.

The computer system 700 includes a processor 702, a cache 704, and oneor more executable modules and drivers, stored on a computer-readablemedium, directed to the processes and features described herein.Additionally, the computer system 700 includes a high performanceinput/output (I/O) bus 706 and a standard I/O bus 708. A host bridge 710couples processor 702 to high performance I/O bus 706, whereas I/O busbridge 712 couples the two buses 706 and 708 to each other. A systemmemory 714 and one or more network interfaces 716 couple to highperformance I/O bus 706. The computer system 700 may further includevideo memory and a display device coupled to the video memory (notshown). Mass storage 718 and I/O ports 720 couple to the standard I/Obus 708. The computer system 700 may optionally include a keyboard andpointing device, a display device, or other input/output devices (notshown) coupled to the standard I/O bus 708. Collectively, these elementsare intended to represent a broad category of computer hardware systems,including but not limited to computer systems based on thex86-compatible processors manufactured by Intel Corporation of SantaClara, Calif., and the x86-compatible processors manufactured byAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD), Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., as well as anyother suitable processor.

An operating system manages and controls the operation of the computersystem 700, including the input and output of data to and from softwareapplications (not shown). The operating system provides an interfacebetween the software applications being executed on the system and thehardware components of the system. Any suitable operating system may beused, such as the LINUX Operating System, the Apple Macintosh OperatingSystem, available from Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., UNIXoperating systems, Microsoft® Windows® operating systems, BSD operatingsystems, and the like. Other implementations are possible.

The elements of the computer system 700 are described in greater detailbelow. In particular, the network interface 716 provides communicationbetween the computer system 700 and any of a wide range of networks,such as an Ethernet (e.g., IEEE 802.3) network, a backplane, etc. Themass storage 718 provides permanent storage for the data and programminginstructions to perform the above-described processes and featuresimplemented by the respective computing systems identified above,whereas the system memory 714 (e.g., DRAM) provides temporary storagefor the data and programming instructions when executed by the processor702. The I/O ports 720 may be one or more serial and/or parallelcommunication ports that provide communication between additionalperipheral devices, which may be coupled to the computer system 700.

The computer system 700 may include a variety of system architectures,and various components of the computer system 700 may be rearranged. Forexample, the cache 704 may be on-chip with processor 702. Alternatively,the cache 704 and the processor 702 may be packed together as a“processor module”, with processor 702 being referred to as the“processor core”. Furthermore, certain embodiments of the invention mayneither require nor include all of the above components. For example,peripheral devices coupled to the standard I/O bus 708 may couple to thehigh performance I/O bus 706. In addition, in some embodiments, only asingle bus may exist, with the components of the computer system 700being coupled to the single bus. Moreover, the computer system 700 mayinclude additional components, such as additional processors, storagedevices, or memories.

In general, the processes and features described herein may beimplemented as part of an operating system or a specific application,component, program, object, module, or series of instructions referredto as “programs”. For example, one or more programs may be used toexecute specific processes described herein. The programs typicallycomprise one or more instructions in various memory and storage devicesin the computer system 700 that, when read and executed by one or moreprocessors, cause the computer system 700 to perform operations toexecute the processes and features described herein. The processes andfeatures described herein may be implemented in software, firmware,hardware (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit), or anycombination thereof.

In one implementation, the processes and features described herein areimplemented as a series of executable modules run by the computer system700, individually or collectively in a distributed computingenvironment. The foregoing modules may be realized by hardware,executable modules stored on a computer-readable medium (ormachine-readable medium), or a combination of both. For example, themodules may comprise a plurality or series of instructions to beexecuted by a processor in a hardware system, such as the processor 702.Initially, the series of instructions may be stored on a storage device,such as the mass storage 718. However, the series of instructions can bestored on any suitable computer readable storage medium. Furthermore,the series of instructions need not be stored locally, and could bereceived from a remote storage device, such as a server on a network,via the network interface 716. The instructions are copied from thestorage device, such as the mass storage 718, into the system memory 714and then accessed and executed by the processor 702. In variousimplementations, a module or modules can be executed by a processor ormultiple processors in one or multiple locations, such as multipleservers in a parallel processing environment.

Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to,recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memory devices;solid state memories; floppy and other removable disks; hard diskdrives; magnetic media; optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-OnlyMemory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs)); other similarnon-transitory (or transitory), tangible (or non-tangible) storagemedium; or any type of medium suitable for storing, encoding, orcarrying a series of instructions for execution by the computer system700 to perform any one or more of the processes and features describedherein.

For purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the description. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of thetechnology can be practiced without these specific details. In someinstances, modules, structures, processes, features, and devices areshown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the description.In other instances, functional block diagrams and flow diagrams areshown to represent data and logic flows. The components of blockdiagrams and flow diagrams (e.g., modules, blocks, structures, devices,features, etc.) may be variously combined, separated, removed,reordered, and replaced in a manner other than as expressly describedand depicted herein.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”,“other embodiments”, “one series of embodiments”, “some embodiments”,“various embodiments”, or the like means that a particular feature,design, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the presenttechnology. The appearances of, for example, the phrase “in oneembodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places in the specificationare not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor areseparate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of otherembodiments. Moreover, whether or not there is express reference to an“embodiment” or the like, various features are described, which may bevariously combined and included in some embodiments, but also variouslyomitted in other embodiments. Similarly, various features are describedthat may be preferences or requirements for some embodiments, but notother embodiments.

The language used herein has been principally selected for readabilityand instructional purposes, and it may not have been selected todelineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter. It is thereforeintended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detaileddescription, but rather by any claims that issue on an application basedhereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodiments of the inventionis intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of theinvention, which is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, by a computing system, a user selection of an audio contentitem; receiving, by the computing system, highlighted portioninformation associated with the audio content item, the highlightedportion information identifying one or more highlighted portions in theaudio content item based on a number of times the one or morehighlighted portions have been shared on a system; and providing, by thecomputing system, a user interface based on the highlighted portioninformation, wherein the user interface comprises one or more highlightindicators, each highlight indicator is associated with a respectivehighlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions, and eachhighlight indicator is selectable by a user to select the associatedhighlighted portion.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the highlighted portion information identifies, for eachhighlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions, a starttime for the highlighted portion.
 3. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 2, further comprising receiving, via the user interface, aselection of a first highlight indicator of the one or more highlightindicators, wherein the first highlight indicator is associated with afirst highlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions, andthe first highlighted portion is associated with a first start time. 4.The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising: inresponse to receiving the selection of the first highlight indicator,setting a selected start time to the first start time.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising: generating apreview of a selected portion of the audio content item based on thefirst start time.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, whereinthe generating the preview of the selected portion of the audio contentitem based on the first start time further comprises generating thepreview of the selected portion of the audio content item based on thefirst start time and a clip length.
 7. The computer-implemented methodof claim 6, wherein the clip length is a pre-determined clip length. 8.The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the clip length isdetermined based on an underlying media content item over which theselected portion of the audio content item is to be overlaid.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the preview comprisesplaying the selected portion of the audio content item with theunderlying media content item.
 10. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the user interface further comprises a scrubber fornavigating to various time positions within the audio content item. 11.A system comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storinginstructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causethe system to perform a method comprising: receiving a user selection ofan audio content item; receiving highlighted portion informationassociated with the audio content item, the highlighted portioninformation identifying one or more highlighted portions in the audiocontent item based on a number of times the one or more highlightedportions have been shared on the system; and providing a user interfacebased on the highlighted portion information, wherein the user interfacecomprises one or more highlight indicators, each highlight indicator isassociated with a respective highlighted portion of the one or morehighlighted portions, and each highlight indicator is selectable by auser to select the associated highlighted portion.
 12. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the highlighted portion information identifies, foreach highlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions, astart time for the highlighted portion.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor,further cause the system to perform: receiving, via the user interface,a selection of a first highlight indicator of the one or more highlightindicators, wherein the first highlight indicator is associated with afirst highlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions, andthe first highlighted portion is associated with a first start time. 14.The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed by theat least one processor, further cause the system to perform: in responseto receiving the selection of the first highlight indicator, setting aselected start time to the first start time.
 15. The system of claim 14,wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor,further cause the system to perform: generating a preview of a selectedportion of the audio content item based on the first start time.
 16. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructionsthat, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system,cause the computing system to perform a method comprising: receiving auser selection of an audio content item; receiving highlighted portioninformation associated with the audio content item, the highlightedportion information identifying one or more highlighted portions in theaudio content item based on a number of times the one or morehighlighted portions have been shared on a system; and providing a userinterface based on the highlighted portion information, wherein the userinterface comprises one or more highlight indicators, each highlightindicator is associated with a respective highlighted portion of the oneor more highlighted portions, and each highlight indicator is selectableby a user to select the associated highlighted portion.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein thehighlighted portion information identifies, for each highlighted portionof the one or more highlighted portions, a start time for thehighlighted portion.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the atleast one processor of the computing system, further cause the computingsystem to perform: receiving, via the user interface, a selection of afirst highlight indicator of the one or more highlight indicators,wherein the first highlight indicator is associated with a firsthighlighted portion of the one or more highlighted portions, and thefirst highlighted portion is associated with a first start time.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the at least one processor of thecomputing system, further cause the computing system to perform: inresponse to receiving the selection of the first highlight indicator,setting a selected start time to the first start time.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the at least one processor of thecomputing system, further cause the computing system to perform:generating a preview of a selected portion of the audio content itembased on the first start time.